Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	harden_v	heart_n	pharaoh_n	2,001	5	11.6391	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13547	The parable of the sovver and of the seed Declaring in foure seuerall grounds, among other things: 1. How farre an hypocrite may goe in the way towards heauen, and wherein the sound Christian goeth beyond him. And 2. In the last and best ground, largely discourseth of a good heart, describing it by very many signes of it, digested into a familiar method: which of it selfe is an entire treatise. And also, 3. From the constant fruit of the good ground, iustifieth the doctrine of the perseuerance of saints: oppugneth the fifth article of the late Arminians; and shortly and plainly answereth their most colourable arguments and euasions. By Thomas Taylor, late fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge, and preacher of the Word of God, at Reding in Bark-shire.	Taylor, Thomas, 1576-1632.	1621 (1621)	STC 23840; ESTC S118185	284,009	494

is necessarily required moisture of grace as to the fruits of earth moisture in the earth But what moisture is in a stone A stone indeed may be moyst on the outside in moyst weather The walls and Marbles seeme to weepe and drops stand on them in rainy seasons not because moisture is in them but moisture offers it selfe vnto them but they hold it not so as they remaine as hard and dry within as euer before So with this stony heart where hardnes of heart raigneth no moisture of Grace no relenting or giuing within Indeed in foule weather when the storme of God is risen an inuincible hard heart as hard as a Marble may seeme soft Pharaoh yeelds and giues againe on the outside You may see drops of water standing in Esaus eyes who wept when the blessing was gone Iudas seemes moystened with repentance Balaam melts a little and wisheth to die well Foelix moulders a little and trembles But we must distinguish this from sound moysture of grace 1. These be flashes and sudden motions and as seldome as the weeping of walls 2. This moysture comes not from an heart softened but from slauish feare or present smart euen from the present disposition of the weather from without 3. So soone as faire weather comes againe the stones are as dry as euer they were so these returne to their former lusts so soone as the foule weather is ouer as Pharaoh Foelix c. Vse 1. Doest thou heare the Word preached without any great fruit Then lay the blame where indeed it is Some impute it to the difficulty of the Word Others to the fault of the Minister who pleaseth them not either in the matter or manner But it were far more commendable for thee to impute thy vnprofitablenesse to the hardnesse of thine owne heart and so take thy sinne home to thy selfe so did the Apostle Paul Rom. 7.14 when he perceiued that the Law of God was not so efficacious to him as he desired he accused not the Law but maintayned it to be spirituall but himselfe as sold vnder sinne He condemned himselfe not the Word so doe thou for the Gospell is the power of God to saluation it is spirit and life and mighty in operation If it worke not so mightily on thy hart then see thy hardnesse bewaile it let godly sorrow and griefe daily dropping make this stone hollow till it haue broken it Vse 2. That of the Apostle Hebr. 3.7 To day if ye will heare his voyce harden not your hearts All the seed cast vpon an hard heart is lost as if a man should sowe on a rocke where is no place for root or moysture Beware of an hard heart there is no curse to that almost no sinne to that Better that all thy field were couered ouer with stones than thy hart should Nay it were better for thee to be a dead stone than a liuing stone Now the markes to know an hard heart are these 1. When Gods Word makes no impression or gets not within the heart to renew or reforme the man though sometimes it may scratch the outside and restraine him When the Law is threatened hee either blesseth himselfe or turneth his eare from it or applies it to others not himselfe And the Gospell enters not because the Law hath not pierced nor been as a needle to make way Let all the mercies of the Gospell be shewed to the wicked he will not repent nor learne to doe well 2. Neglect or light ouer-passing the workes of Gods Mercy or Iustice vpon himselfe or others For mercies when the goodnesse of God leades him not to repentance Rom. 2.4 5. Our Lord makes this a cause euen in his owne Disciples in whom the sin raigned not that they forgat the matter of the loaues because their hearts were hardened Mark 6.52 For the Iudgements of God his workes of Iustice doe moue somewhat more than Mercies but nothing to amendment Pharaoh when iudgement puts him to a plunge could say I haue sinned here is a little scratch on his heart as on a Stethy but the hardnes recoyles the stroke that should breake the heart to pieces so as after all the strokes of God there is no reformation 3. Vnfeelingnesse of hardnesse and vnwillingnes to feele it no mislike of it no desire to vnderstand the danger of it When men desire to sit quiet in sin and nothing so offends them as to heare their sinne disgraced when they turne their backes and stop their eares Zech. 7.11 Being as loth to bee drawne to a Sermon powerfull against sinne as Israel to come neere the Mountaine Whereas a soft heart is most sensible of much hardnesse in it and counts no burthen comparable thereto 4. For the maintaining their estate credit and fauour in the world or their lusts and pleasures to oppose and dislike such Doctrines courses and persons as haue the Word on their sides Pharaoh must not seeme to be ouercome by such meane people and therefore seeing euidently the Lord stand for them he obdured himselfe The Scribes and Pharises conuinced in their conscience of the truth of Christs Doctrine and the innocency of his person did out of hardnesse of heart euer oppose both his Doctrine and Person because they must maintaine their credit in the world and vphold their pompe and glory against him though hee had truth and equity and innocency on his side The like of all hardened persecutors of the poore Saints 5. Out of resolution of following a mans owne present course whatsoeuer perswasions or Doctrines he heareth to the contrary to fly occasions and companies which might touch or worke vpon his conscience Some cannot abide to heare strict Preachers that allow them no vnlawfull liberty no not affoord them a looke on the forbidden fruit Others cannot endure the society of a faithfull friend that will truly tell them of thēselues No such string must be touched This argues a soule or soyle settled in hardnesse 6. Habits and customable sins which make the heart as a path-way A soft heart smites it selfe for once sinning and for small sinning Dauids heart smote him for cutting off the lap of Sauls garment How would it haue smote him for cutting off his head But custome of sinne hardeneth exceedingly Heb. 3.13 Take heede lest any be hardened through the deceitfulnes of sin And by hindring repentance it holds men in the trade of sinne Hardnesse and the heart that cannot repent are ioyned together Rom. 2.5 Vse 3. As euer thou wouldest heare the Word to saluation labour for a soft and melting heart such as good Iosias had whose soule melted to heare the words of the Law read The greatest blessing heere below is an heart flexible and bowed to the obedience of God And hereunto consider these Motiues 1. That it is a note of a child of God to haue his natiue hardnesse mollified and his naturall stubbornnesse corrected and altered by the Spirit of sanctification 2. Thes. 2.13

2. It is one branch of Gods Couenant which he ratifieth to the Elect and by which he begins his mercy I will put a new Spirit within their bowels I will take away the stony heart and giue them an heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 3. Neuer canst thou bee framed to grace no fashion of the Word can be seene on thee till thou attaine a soft heart You cannot cast a stone in a mold as you can metall because it cannot melt 4. If thou bring an hard heart the very Word a meanes of softening others shall by thy malice be peruerted to thy further hardening The same Sunne that softeneth waxe hardeneth clay Therefore vse all good meanes to get thee a soft heart One is the Word of God the Law which is as a Plough to breake vp our fallow grounds and the Gospell which is as the warme Sunne to thaw our hard earth Be diligent in hearing and reading the continuall drops of this raine by often falling pierce the stone of the heart and breake it 2. Another meanes is in outward prosperity to meditate much and often on our inward misery For ease plenty and prosperity harden the heart Deut 32.15 and chap. 9.6 7. Thou art a stiffe-necked people remember and forget not how thou prouokedst the Lord. A third is in time of affliction to set in seriously with God who now intends the softening of our hearts Wisely apply vnto thy selfe the afflictions not of thy selfe onely but of others See Gods displeasure in the cause of them which is thine owne sinne Be not as Esau that lift vp his voice and wept but still kept reuenge within but put away a froward heart giue sinne a bill of diuorce hate it and put it away Fourthly looke much and often vpon the death of Iesus Christ and apply it to thy owne soule Goats blood warme they say softeneth the Adamant being put in it Get this Adamantine heart of thine broken by serious application of Christs death to thy owne soule The Gospell shewes sinne in a more ougly face than the Law can shewing it to bee the speare that went to Christs heart and that God is now offended by me whom he vouchsafeth in Christ to call a sonne Lastly pray often yea continually that the Lord would giue thee a soft heart which may be fashioned by the Word to his owne liking and likenesse Depend vpon the promise Ezek. 36.26 And praise him if thou hast receiued such a soft and sanctified heart wherein the seede of Gods Word shall rise vp with abundant increase of grace heere and of glory hereafter Because they haue no roots HAuing spoken of the inward positiue cause why the seed falling on this stony ground withered which was stoninesse or hardnesse now wee are to proceed to the inward priuatiue causes both heere and in the other Euangelists namely want of Moystnesse Earth Roots Now all these proceede from the former hardnesse For the heart being rocky and stony vnderneath it cannot affoord either earth or roots or moysture to the seed Which wee must not vnderstand as if there were no earth or roots or moysture For wee haue seene this ground bring forth much hopefull fruit which without all these it could not But as Marke saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it had not much earth but as a rocke couered with a little crust of earth aboue all stones below It wanted depth of earth Mark 4.5 So it had no roots that is no deepe roots no roots to feede the stalke and blade that was come no roots which could saue it from withering in time of heate This is implied by all the Euangelists who say Because it wanted roots it lasted but a while Againe for the same reason it wanted moysture that is sufficient moysture For the property of stony ground is 1. To be hot and dry and so drinkes vp moysture apace 2. It suffers not the moysture to descend deepe so as the externall heate soone drawes it and licks it vp Hence note what it is that makes many goodly Professors fall short of saluation after they haue gone a long time in a glorious profession to wit want of sufficient earth roots and moysture By sufficient earth I vnderstand a particular and distinct knowledge of the Word and of their owne part in it For they content themselues with a kinde of generall knowledge and agree to it in their vnderstanding that it is the Word of the Kingdome that saluation is by these glad tidings c. and reioyce in the taste of some sweetnesse of it But they giue it not entrance enough by applying their minde vnto it nor receiue it as a distinct direction in all things nor will trouble themselues with carefull examination of their whole way by it and much lesse with application of the signes of faith toward God or of Gods fauour toward themselues And so are iustly guilty of their owne withering for want of sufficient earth All their graces at length become like seeds sowne on the top of a rocke which sprout suddenly but wanting depth of earth to feede them wither as certainly By rooting here I vnderstand stability certainty and sincerity of faith and other graces which these Hearers want For although there bee some earth on the top yet it is but shallow and the shallower the root lies though the blade may sprout more speedily yet want of depth makes root and blade and all faile together So although there be some faith and ioy for a time with some other comely graces yet are they superficiall they giue not their whole hearts to the Word there is no sincerity in the bottome and consequently no rooting no stability Their care is more for the blade than for the root which beares it Their vnsettled faith is set not in sound inward apprehension but on outward causes which being changeable so is their faith themselues also carried about with euery waue of doctrine and with wheeling of times and at last led away with the sins of the times of their callings or of their owne hearts By moystnesse heere I vnderstand both the moystnesse of Vnction and of Compunction The former is a sound supply of sauing grace which continually feedeth and cherisheth the root For as the seed in the earth is brought to fruitfulnesse by continuall showres so is the seed of grace in the heart by continued and renewed acts of the Spirit whose graces are compared to water and said to be shed on vs in regard 1. of mollification 2. of ablution 3. of refrigeration and 4. of fructification Now this sound supply of grace these Hearers want and iustly though they want not all moysture but they goe not to the fountaine they draw from some spouts or some streames which are dryed vp in the summer heate Whereas were they by faith carried to the Fountaine it selfe Iesus Christ their waters would be indeficient and could not be exhausted for these waters

refuseth a pardon As if the blinde man hauing receiued sight should reuile Christ for it or the dead being raised should storme at him for offering to raise him 2. He is made vnexcusable and his mouth shut He is prepared for iudgement and iudgeth himselfe vnworthie of eternall life He may see but will not He may liue but had rather chuse death 3. By the iust iudgement of God the vnworthie or vnfruitfull hearer is more blinded further hardned and made more obstinate He is filthy in himselfe but more filthy by the Word yet the Word no cause hereof but his owne malice against it and the dunghill that is in him For Christ came to iudgement into this world that they which see might be blinde He is blind in himselfe but the Word is a light that more blinds him as the Sunne to bleare-eyes in them onely is the fault He is a dead man in himselfe but more deadly by the Gospell which in it selfe is a sauour of life and to others but the sauour of death vnto him God as a iust Iudge punishing sinne with sinne Satan blindeth primarily and by himselfe instilling malice Wicked Pharaoh blindeth himselfe by yeelding to Satan by reiecting the motions of the Spirit and holy counsels Exod. 8.15 And God blindeth not infusing euill but subtracting his grace and deliuering men to Satan and themselues 2. Thes. 2.10 11. most iustly reiecting them that haue reiected his grace And the Gospell blindeth not as a cause but as an occasion stirring vp their malice and corruption against it 4. He is hereby branded not to be of God Let him heare and be ceremonially and formally as good as any yea outstrip others in sembled sanctity yet if he be a fruitlesse hearer and the Word be as a Parable vnto him he is not of God Io. 8.47 So said Christ to the Pharises who externally were holy enough they heard not while they did heare because they were not of God And not being of God they are giuen into the hands of the diuell as Gods executioner to blindfold them and leade them at his will to destruction 2. Cor. 4.4 5. This hardning or execution by the preaching of the Word is an infallible signe of future perdition euen at the doore When Israel was extremely hardened by the Prophets Ministery they were carried into Assyria and neuer returned Iudah and Beniamin were also extremely hardened 2. Chron. 36.13 16. and were carried into Babylon The Iewes were hardened by Christ and his Apostles Act. 13. and were deliuered to the Romans So of Elies sons 1. Sam. 2. They heard not their father for God would destroy them So now in the time of the Gospell the axe is laid to the root of the tree the next thing is hewing downe What else can we feare of our Land and many our Inhabitants to whom Gods Word is as a tale told to a dead man no vnderstanding of it no reformation by it So much of the Preface Now we come to the Parable it selfe Behold a sower went out to sowe his seed To the right and true interpreting of a Parable a speciall helpe is to consider attentiuely and finde out the proper scope and ayme of our Lord Iesus Christ in propounding it and not too curiously presse other things lest in stead of milke wee presse out blood In this Parable both in the whole and parts wee feare not to faile of the true and proper sense because this one more of the tares of the field Mat. 13.36 at the request of the Disciples are priuiledged and graced with Christs owne interpretation who best knew his owne meaning and hath left the same as a sure direction to lead vs that wee should not guesse at vncertainties or lose our selues in fond coniectures as many doe in other Parables the exposition of which he pleased not to leaue so assured from his owne mouth as this The scope hereof is apparantly twofold 1. Wheras our Sauiour saw a multitude of Hearers but not all comming with the same intent nor all hearing with the same fruit and profit hee manifestly propoundeth this Parable to shew the diuersity of Hearers For the state of the Church and visible Congregations are mixt resembling the Arke which was full of creatures of diuers kinds but most kinds vncleane So Christ and his Apostles found it and so doe we after them In the great concourse of people about vs the Word hath not the same successe in all Hearers nor the best entertainment and welcome in the most that heare it Some come to heare newes some to carpe some to scoffe some to runne to the Rulers some to censure some to correct and sit as Iudges of the Word which shall iudge them onely a very few to heare aright to faith and obedience How plainly is all this set before vs in these foure sorts of Hearers of whom onely one sort was good and approued in their hearing 2. That euery man might enquire and make triall of himselfe in which forme or ranke of Hearers himselfe is and so frame himselfe for time to come that hee may bee found in the number of them in whom the Word of God as good seed cast into good ground may bring forth plentifull and abundant fruits of grace in his life and conuersation Behold This here is a note 1. Of certainty and so is vsually set before promises and threats 2. Of intention or excitation being set as a starre before matters of waight that is Let him that heares consider remember apply 3. Of castigation or checke to our dulnesse in beholding such materiall things Elsewhere it is a note of admiration and great expectation Note Orators vse large prefaces to get attention and winne the minds of their Hearers to that they would perswade Christ ordinarily vseth but one little note of attention Behold For 1. The least word from him is enough to binde the conscience and perswade the heart 2. The lesse externall Rhetorike and pompe of words is vsed the more it beseemes and is answerable to the simplicity of the Gospell 3. All that perswasion of words is supplied by the gift of the Spirit inwardly who openeth the care of the heart as of Lydia to beleeue the Gospell But what must we behold A Sower went out Our Sauiour borroweth his comparison from easie and familiar things such as the Sower the seed the ground the growth the withering the answering or failing of the Sowers expectation all of them things well knowne And by all these would teach vs some spirituall instruction For there is no earthly thing which is not fitted to put vs in minde of some heauenly Christ cannot looke vpon the Sunne the Wind Fire Water Hen a little graine of Mustard-seed nor vpon ordinary occasions as the Penny giuen for the dayes worke the Wedding garment and ceremonies of the Iewes about it nor the waiting of Seruants at their Masters table or children asking bread and fish at